Having financial resources usually benefits the Michigan basketball team -- except when there's a wrench in the plan.

Looking at the rough travel schedule for these three weeks, the Wolverines chartered a plane to and from the Bahamas for last week's Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, planning to leave early Saturday morning to get home in time to watch the Michigan vs. Ohio State football game.

There was just enough time for a light Sunday practice and then it was off to Raleigh, N.C., on Monday for tonight's game against North Carolina State (7 p.m., ESPN2).

"It is what it is. The three games in those (Atlantis) days, you select those things, then you're at the mercy of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. You don't know whether you're going to be Tuesday or Wednesday," Beilein said. "Frankly, I'd rather go play right now. ... At this time of the season, it shouldn't affect you too much. If it was February, it might be a little bit different."

Michigan (4-2) only has one major-conference win so far, knocking off Texas (No. 42 in kenpom.com rankings) in the Atlantis fifth-place game. Now it has the chance to get two more, against the No. 57 Wolfpack and at No. 30 SMU next Tuesday. After that, U-M doesn't face another major-conference opponent until the Big Ten season.

Michigan had chances for impressive wins against No. 14 Xavier and No. 22 Connecticut but weren't competitive in either game.

In the past, such wins usually were about boosting U-M's NCAA tournament seeding, as top-50 wins are among the most-discussed categories in March. But after missing last year's tourney entirely, wins are not about placement but simply getting in.

"We talk about that all the time," Beilein said. "We talked about that in the Gavitt Cup (against Xavier): This is the Big East against the (Big Ten), we've got to do our league's part. Now it's the ACC against the Big Ten; we've got to do the part in our league. You've got to have an incredible Big Ten season if you don't have some success against the other BCS teams, the other high-level teams you're going to play in that preseason.

"You've got to win some of those or you've got to be 14-4 in your league, and that's really going to be hard to do."

Beilein speaks from experience.

In 2013-14, U-M was in a similar spot, missing its chances for big-time nonconference wins, yet pulled off a 13-3 Big Ten championship season to secure a No. 2 NCAA tournament seed. But he also remembers the pressure on the team entering Big Ten play, with talk of how the nonconference would have its tourney chances in doubt with an average Big Ten campaign.

Having gone through it, co-captain Caris LeVert is stressing the nonconference importance to his teammates.

"We kind of know that," he said. "I know Texas was a big win for us, but these next two on the road would be huge wins for us going into the Big Ten season. It'll definitely be something that we talk to the team about."